streetfestival

“And the sad truth is this hospital has a deficit of $12 million,” said Michael Hurley, president of OCHU-CUPE, in his remarks at the rally. “Like many hospitals in this province as a result, it’s cutting staff at the same time that the population of Guelph is aging and growing and the demand here is so significant that in two-thirds of cases this hospital can not meet provincial targets to admit patients on time from its ER. That’s the reality.”

Brodie-Campbell has worked at GGH since 1991 and she can’t remember a lay-off this big before.

Behind every nurse is a PSW, said Tammy McGlone, PSW at GGH, who isn’t getting laid off since she has seniority. “Bare bones to it all is the nurses don’t have time to do what we do,” said Brandy Wilson, PSW at GGH, who is set to be laid off.

The impacts are two-fold with the first being patient care with things propping up like bed sores, malnourishment, muscle deterioration if patients aren’t up and moving around. The other is nursing staff won’t stay in the profession because “there is no job satisfaction with this type of work environment,” said Zinger.

“I am here to push Canada to stop supplying Israel with weapons, and to make it clear that Jewish people do not want Canada to continue to provide weapons to Israel,” David Mivasair, a retired rabbi who served two different synagogues in Vancouver for about 23 years, told Ricochet. Mivasair’s message to the MPs was “not to listen to the Jewish organizations supporting Israel — they don’t speak for us.”

“When we survived the Holocaust, we learned that this should never again happen for anyone,” she said. “Never again means never again for anyone, and this is happening in our name.

So far, 47 MPs, including NDP Foreign Affairs critic Heather McPherson and Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green, have agreed to endorse the government’s proposed full arms embargo, Small says.

“We have had some baby steps, but it is not enough, Wasser told Ricochet. “There are still at least 200 permits that have not been suspended for Canadian companies manufacturing weapons going to Israel.”

ESPN's NBA 25 under 25: Top young stars, ranked by future potential

1. Victor Wembanyama, C, San Antonio Spurs
2. Anthony Edwards, PG, Minnesota Timberwolves
3. Paolo Banchero, PF, Orlando Magic
4. Franz Wagner, PF, Orlando Magic
5. Chet Holmgren, PF, Oklahoma City Thunder
6. Tyrese Haliburton, PG, Indiana Pacers
7. Tyrese Maxey, PG, Philadelphia 76ers
8. Evan Mobley, PF, Cleveland Cavaliers
9. Jalen Williams, SF, Oklahoma City Thunder
10. Alperen Sengun, C, Houston Rockets
11. Scottie Barnes, SF, Toronto Raptors
12. LaMelo Ball, PG, Charlotte Hornets
13. Cade Cunningham, PG, Detroit Pistons
14. Darius Garland, PG, Cleveland Cavaliers
15. Brandon Miller, SF, Charlotte Hornets
16. Zion Williamson, PF, New Orleans Pelicans
17. Jalen Johnson, SF, Atlanta Hawks
18. Jalen Suggs, SG, Orlando Magic
19. Dereck Lively II, C, Dallas Mavericks
20. Jalen Green, SG, Houston Rockets
21. Tyler Herro, PG, Miami Heat
22. Amen Thompson, SF, Houston Rockets
23. Dyson Daniels, PG, Atlanta Hawks
24. Tari Eason, PF, Houston Rockets
25. Bilal Coulibaly, SG, Washington Wizards

The strike by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers—of which I’ve been a member for more than two years—is now the third-longest non-rotating strike in the history of the Canadian post office. It’s shorter only than the strike in 1975, which won job security, and the strike in 1981, in which CUPW won a maternity leave policy that later formed the basis of public maternity leave for the entire country.

Overall, there is a sense that management has grown out of touch with its workforce. This was clear enough when Canada Post spokesperson John Hamilton told The Globe and Mail that “many young people are not looking for full-time, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs. They want flexibility. They could work for Canada Post part-time and have other part-time jobs during the week.” [...] His line was clearly a justification for the increasing trend of the corporation relying on casual workers, who now constitute around 20 per cent of CUPW’s total membership, myself included.

Despite its importance to postal workers and the future of this postal service, the strike is poorly understood from the outside. It has mostly been seen as a dispute over wages. And it’s true, the wages are part of the disagreement: the union is seeking to keep them in line with inflation, something in the ballpark of 22 to 24 per cent. The corporation has offered just shy of 12 per cent over that same period. But my sense from the picket line is that while wages are still on the bargaining table, they are far from the defining factor that motivates workers to walk the picket line day after day. Instead, workers are driven by attacks to the pension fund and an even more aggressive push toward casual work.

Beyond a few details—a guarantee of only eight hours per week, with up to 30 hours of availability expected if the corporation requires it—little is known about the type of positions management wants to create, and employees have not been consulted on potential changes.

The media has seemed more interested in the public power struggle between Canada Post and CUPW than any of the actual issues that underlie it. A national union fighting the casualization of labour that has infected the entire Canadian economy ought to be a big story, but the coverage so far has largely focused on existential questions about the post office, set against the all-too-convenient backdrop of the corporation’s latest financial results.

The cracks in the COP climate conference system are so gaping and obvious that there is now a cacophony of voices calling for changes. In particular, the “Club of Rome” suggests reforms that would substantially improve negotiations. The historical approach to the Big Tobacco lobby which includes banning advertising, eliminating lobbying and taxing products (or at least removing subsidies, in the case of fossil fuels) can transform our approach.

The fossil fuel industry's presence at climate talks is as inappropriate as tobacco companies at a lung cancer conference. There were 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists identified there with at least 28 from Canada alone. Prominent fossil fuel lobby organizations had pavilions, including OPEC, the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and Canada’s own Clean Resource Innovation Network (awkwardly named to avoid the words “Canada” and “oil and gas”.)

Meanwhile, authoritarian petrostates have hosted the conference three years in a row, further disrupting the negotiations.

I am so sick of seeing BS ads on the streets in Toronto like:
"As Long as the World Needs Oil & Gas, It Should Be Canadian"
https://www.canadaaction.ca/it-should-be-canadian

Common tactics: 1) Delay action, 2) discount the scale of the problem, 3) focus on any possible minutiae to make your product appear positively, 4) make a false appeal to patriotism.
Reality check: We have pretty much the dirtiest oil in the world (80% more emissions than the cleanest oil). The world should be getting off tarsands oil as quickly as possible.

Misrepresentations are nothing new for Poilievre, mind you. If anything, he’s built the massive lead his party enjoys in the polls on the back of his concerted campaign to confuse Canadians about why they’re paying higher prices for things like groceries and energy. But this particular abuse of the truth is so obvious, so flagrant, and so utterly pointless that it’s worth thinking a little longer about what it says.

This is the real risk of a Poilievre government, one that has multiplied in scale with Trump on his way to the White House. His utter indifference to the truth, and his willingness to weaponize deceit for his own purposes, are traits he clearly shares with Trump. But they will not endear him to the U.S. president, and they will not spare us from his administration’s inevitable wrath. Surrender, after all, doesn’t deter a bully — it encourages him. And every concession to deceit, no matter how small, makes the bigger lies that much easier to get away with.

The best way to protect our cultural and political sovereignty right now is by defending reality, inconvenient as it may seem at times. With Trump in power and our social media overlords increasingly unwilling to do anything to stop the spread of falsehoods and conspiracies on their platforms, we are well and truly on our own here. Our government — indeed, all of our governments — have to step up.

US documents say the organization helps fund a terrorist group. But lawyers warn of chilling legitimate protest.

The moment Jada-Gabrielle Pape saw an online National Post report calling her “one of Samidoun’s most active organizers,” she was gripped with fear.

The Canadian government had declared the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network a terrorist entity less than a month earlier. Samidoun has been an active presence at many protests in Vancouver.

“As an Indigenous person, we’re targeted by the state at a disproportionate rate,” said Pape, who is Coast Salish from the Saanich and Snuneymuxw nations. “I’m afraid to be targeted by the police and by the state and afraid of what it will do to my family. My family is very afraid for me.”

Pape immediately reached out to the National Post to demand a correction. The columnist hadn’t contacted her before claiming, without evidence, she was a member of a terrorist organization, she noted.

Editors quickly removed any reference to her from the article. The National Post did not respond to The Tyee’s request for comment.

Anti-whistleblower laws are being successfully pushed by Canada’s farm lobby.

Mainstream commercial animal agriculture is conducted in an intensive way in often cramped and unhygienic environments. These conditions are ideal for new viruses to jump from animals to humans.

Beyond potentially lethal pathogens, the conditions in factory farms also raise concerns about air and water contamination and greenhouse gas pollution that exacerbates climate change.

Meanwhile, dangerous conditions for workers and considerable animal suffering add compounding concerns for an already controversial industry.

Often, the only light shed on these shadowy, dirty and densely populated spaces comes from hidden-camera investigations by journalists, activists and whistleblower employees. But new laws in Canada — often referred to as “agriculture-gag” laws — are making such investigations illegal.

These laws do a disservice to all Canadians.

~

In our research we found that Canadian governments chiefly cite biosecurity as the justification for ag-gag laws. They claim that whistleblowers and animal activists could spread diseases. To our knowledge, there is no evidence that whistleblowers or animal activists have ever spread animal-borne diseases in this way.

Meanwhile, modern animal agriculture is itself a hotbed for diseases like avian influenza — including H5N1. Viruses spread and mutate easily in concentrated populations of chickens, dairy cows and pigs.

Industry and government officials have also painted animal activists as “domestic terrorists” who pose a threat to farmers and their children. Likewise, such claims appear to be baseless.

Another thing is that the motivations to raise 'livestock' as quickly and cheaply on the largest scale as possible mean that they have practically no immunity to pathogens. Livestock workers are in PPE like surgeons because of how precarious the situations are, perfect for outbreaks

In October, Indigo won an order blocking a website calling for a boycott of the bookseller. The case, largely ignored by the media, revealed a new and unlikely front in the struggle in Canada between the movement for Palestinian liberation and Israel’s powerful supporters, one which could have ramifications for other solidarity efforts.

In August, anonymous activists created the website IndigoKillsKids.ca, which has been endorsed by the Canadian BDS Coalition and other pro-Palestine organizations. The site, borrowing Indigo’s visual style, told visitors to boycott the company, promoted the September 25 day of action against it and offered links to various BDS resources. It was the latest phase in a years-long campaign to boycott the bookseller over the HESEG Foundation — founded and run by Indigo CEO Heather Reisman and her husband, Indigo’s owner Gerald Schwartz — which offers scholarships to Israeli army veterans without family in Israel.

Soon after the site went live, Indigo’s lawyer demanded it be taken down, and two weeks later filed a suit requesting an order for all major internet providers in Canada to block the site. The court granted the request, first under an interim decision issued September 19, and then with a two-year injunction on October 23, effectively shutting down the offending website along with several social media accounts for the foreseeable future. That month, it was reported that Israel’s military had killed at least 16,900 children in its assault on Gaza.

The Indian Resource Council of Canada (IRC) and some Treaty Six Chiefs held a news conference on Parliament Hill on Wednesday, indicating they intend to file a judicial review against the climate policy.

“The impact of this legislation in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Treaty Six territory is severe,” said Robert Black, legal counsel for the IRC.

“The nations in Alberta and Saskatchewan are often remote, and there is a reliance upon high carbon fuels because there's simply no alternatives. There's no process in those reserves to just make better choices, to use mass transportation, because there's a massive infrastructure deficit within community,” he said.

“Then, you combine that with the reality that the rebate system is through the Income Tax Act, and most folks that live and work on reserves are not filing income tax returns. They're essentially shut out from the system to secure their rebates.”

The fact that First Nations weren’t consulted on the federal carbon pricing system breaches the Crown’s duty to consult and, although the carbon price isn’t technically a tax, “it clearly violates the spirit and intent” of on-reserve tax exemptions in the Indian Act, said Gregg Desjarlais, Chief of Frog Lake First Nation and chairman of the IRC board.